PLANS to convert more than 300 miles of motorway hard shoulder into extra driving lanes could put lives at risk, MPs have warned.

Plans to expand motorways to make hard shoulder permenent lanes has been scrapped

Highways bosses wanted to ease congestion by letting drivers use them as lanes but an inquiry by the Commons Transport Select Committee wants the plan scrapped for being too dangerous and not properly thought out.

Previous schemes have used hard shoulders during rush hour periods or to deal with congestion but the new plans would permanently convert them.

Opening up hard shoulders to traffic is seen as a cheaper and less disruptive alternative to widening motorways as experts predict a 60 per cent increase in motorway traffic by 2040.

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But Transport Select Committee chair Louise Ellman said: "The permanent removal of the hard shoulder is a dramatic change. All kinds of drivers, including the emergency services, are genuinely concerned about the risk this presents.

"It is undeniable that we need to find ways of dealing with traffic growth on the strategic network. But All Lane Running does not appear to us to be the safe, incremental change the Department wants us to think it is."

MPs said a scheme on the M42 had a good safety record but warned newer schemes were less safe and public awareness about how and when to use the hard shoulder was insufficient.

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The plan was originally conceived as a big to ease congestion on UK motorways

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Emergency services have hit out at the plan citing it as a health and safety risk

Breaking down on a motorway in a live running lane is every driver's worst fear

AA president Edmund King

Motoring groups have also raised safety fears over the hard shoulder plan.

AA president Edmund King said: "Breaking down on a motorway in a live running lane is every driver's worst fear. Right from the outset the AA raised substantive safety concerns, also voiced by our members, over the dangers of breaking down on a motorway without a hard shoulder or with an inadequate number and size of lay-bys.

"While we need to increase capacity and reduce congestion we must ensure that we are not cutting corners which compromise safety just to reduce costs."

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The benefit of expanding the motorway would be that is cheaper and less disruptive than widening it

RAC chief engineer David Bizley said: "While supporting smart motorways as a cost-effective and relatively rapid way of increasing motorway capacity, the RAC has repeatedly expressed concerns about the latest design which turns the hard shoulder on motorways into a permanent running lane.

"The safety of motorists must come first and therefore new designs need to be trialled for sufficiently long to demonstrate their safety before they are introduced more widely."